Details Of Teachers Awarded By CEMASTEA For Online Learning, Training During Covid-19 Pandemic
The Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA) has done a commendable job since March 2019, when schools were closed due to covid-19. In its theme dubbed, ‘ensuring continued learning during crisis times,’ CEMASTEA has trained more than 12,000 teachers online in Kenya alone since covid stuck. The teachers would register through a link that CEMASTEA posted in its twitter handle. Some were sourced from schools by SMASSE trainers. The teachers, who were not necessarily science or mathematics teachers, and were from various countries, were organized into cohorts and each cohort was taken through a four week training on how to handle their learners during crisis times. The platforms for training were zoom or Google classroom. After the training, some teachers immediately organized learners within their communities and started teaching.
The in-service Education and Training also produced about 1,163 County Trainers in all the 47 counties.
CEMASTEA Director Jacinta Akatsa, confirmed that the training exercise had seen to it that quality training and learning continued amid schools’ closure during the wake of the pandemic.
Among the awards given were certificates, trophies, laptops and cash money, to motivate the teachers.
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“Besides the awards, it was by dint of collaboration between e-Kitabu and CEMASTEA that an online competition was conceived and introduced to enable teachers to develop and deliver content online to learners using a suitable learning management system. The competition started at the County level and proceeded to the regional and national levels,” stated Akatsa during the virtual ceremony to celebrate this milestone.
“It calls for professional flexibility, patience, personal strength and endurance to deliver in unpredictable circumstances where technology such as the internet can suddenly fail midstream. Teaching remotely is truly challenging and only the best and dedicated can excel,” said Dr Nthamburi, the TSC director of quality assurance, in recognition of CEMASTEA efforts.
The categories of Kenyan teachers that CEMASTEA awarded were;
- The best teachers and trainers per region. Each teacher in this category received a lap-top, a trophy and a certificate of excellence.
- Three teachers and three trainers who emerged the best nationally .This category received a laptop, a trophy, a certificate of excellence, and cash. Overall winners received Ksh. 100, 000 each, first runners’ up received KSh.75, 000 and second runners’ up received Ksh. 50,000.
- All teachers who participated in the training received a certificate of participation.
